Kris Letang skates up ice Saturday night in St. Paul, Minn. - AP

Penguins

Kovacevic: The wait for 58 continues

Oct 29, 2017 • 1:16 am

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ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Kris Letang's got his legs back.

I suppose it's worthwhile, when discussing the greatest defenseman in the Penguins' 51 years, to open with a positive. He's earned that much and a whole lot more. And besides, he's always been brutally blunt, so there's no reason to doubt his word when he told me late Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center, while unlacing his skates at his stall, "My legs are back. I can definitely feel that."

Good. That's a fair start. And I believe him.

"And I'm not tired," he continued. "I know that. I know that for sure."

I believe that, too, despite what my eyes tell me at times. I really do.

But in the same breath, being no less brutally blunt, the wait for No. 58 is very much an ongoing, often painful process. And it had never been more painful over the brief course of this NHL season to date than this particular 2-1 loss to the Wild.

Because these two events occurred on the same power play in the second period:

Don't try to figure those out. Just don't. Total waste of time.

Or, for that matter, why Letang was so late in picking up the most dangerous target on the ice, Mikko Koivu, before his winning goal midway through the third:

Or this casual whiff in the final two minutes to hand the puck to the Wild's Mikael Granlund, leading to an Ian Cole hook that basically killed the Penguins' chance to tie:

Or this final Bizzaro World cross-rink pass on the final rush with 13 seconds remaining:

It hasn't been any better in the more tangible sense: He's got a goal, six assists and a team-worst minus-11 rating. And digging deeper into advanced stats, the Penguins have been a demonstrably better five-on-five team with Letang on the bench than on the ice. Overall, the team accounts for 49 percent of all shot attempts in a given game. When Letang's out there, that number drops to 47.9 percent.

In this game alone, he was on the ice for 11 Pittsburgh shot attempts, compared to 14 for Minnesota, the third-worst differential on his team.

I'm not big on singular blame in team sports, and there shouldn't be any here, either. The Penguins' five-on-five play, as Mike Sullivan offered with a strikingly critical tone afterward, was "one-and-done" with pretty much every foray over the Minnesota blue line. Evgeni Malkin scored the lone goal on a power-play pinball off two opponents, but was skating through the same fog as Letang. Others boarded the first leg of this five-game trip as passengers, as well.

Besides, it was just a boring, pace-free game all-around:

To repeat, Letang didn't lose this. But he didn't win it, either. Nor has he been primarily responsible for winning any of his team's dozen games so far. And that would be disconcerting under any scenario, let alone one in which he's back from a half-year rehab following neck surgery.

So yeah, when he and I sat in a corner of the room to start talking, health absolutely came first.

"I'm fine, really," he insisted. "No problems."

Nothing holding him back?

"Nothing at all."

Not even, I double-checked, any fatigue, with his having just logged a game-high 27:10 of ice time?

"I mean, I'm tired now. We just played. But I feel good out there on the ice."

My next questions, at least the ones I was formulating, never had to be spoken: What's wrong, man? What's missing? What's up with all the weirdness?

And they don't need to be spoken because it's already excruciatingly evident that's he's pounding away at himself with that and more. That's the Tanger way. This is someone who, after Game 6 in San Jose, maybe the most dominant performance by a defenseman in franchise history, was still shaking his head about how he could have done this or that better.

The answers after this game weren't exactly overflowing. But a few did gradually trickle out.

He spoke of feeling "too stationary," of needing "to get my feet moving."

That would help.

He spoke of wanting to be "sharper" in his decisions, more "committed" to his pass or shot.

I liked that, too. That's a term Ray Searage uses with the Pirates' pitchers. He wants them to feel conviction in what they're about to do before they do it. I've also heard Ben Roethlisberger use it a time or two in reference to visualizing a completion into tight coverage.

Letang also spoke of taking control. This felt the most encouraging because, as I'd mentioned to him earlier in the talk, he's always been at his best when he treats the whole rink like it's his personal pond. He's all over the place. He dictates everything, even more than Sidney Crosby at his peak.

"I want to be that player," Letang said. "But I always want that."

It takes time, though. And that might be the most pertinent point of all here. We're not just talking about neck surgery. We're talking about, even if they're no longer issues, the stroke, the hole in the heart, the shoulder, the knee and then, after the neck surgery, months away from the ice while his mates were raising another Cup.

I look at those gaffes illustrated above, and I don't see laziness for the simple reason that it isn't in Letang's DNA. I see someone who's trying to climb back to his rightful place on his team, in the game, and who's pensive about it. He's grappling with it. Every shift feels like a fight.

He'll win that fight. He always has, always will. It just might make for a longer shift than everyone would like.

• Here's something you seldom see from Murray, this on Minnesota's first goal, two minutes after Evgeni Malkin opened the scoring in the first period:

Matt Cullen takes a harmless long-range shot, and Murray lets up a bad rebound near the right hash. Rather than simply recognizing it's Daniel Winnik and allowing the damage to be done -- it's not like Winnik's ever been a threat to score -- he shows at least a hint of frustration and dives forward to try to poke away the rebound. And then ... ugh.

"I just missed it," Murray told me. "It felt like that puck was sitting there forever. I needed to do something."

Murray was terrific again, making 27 saves. This was his first regulation loss, and it was anything but his fault.

• Sullivan wouldn't identify his goaltender for Winnipeg when I asked, but I'll be stunned if it isn't Murray again. The Penguins have two days off between Winnipeg and Edmonton, which is plenty of time to recover. Plus, the Wild didn't exactly overextend Murray. Plus, Murray was just excellent against the Jets earlier this week. Plus, Sully was in a foul mood and will want to right things as soon as possible. Plus, Casey DeSmith's never done anything in the NHL other than swing open a bench door.

• There just can't be a quieter setting in professional sports than this building. It's a stunning thing every time I experience it. The puck drops, the in-game entertainment stops and ... poof, it's suddenly a library! Which is funny because the reputation with the old North Stars at the Met Center in Bloomington -- with its low metal roof that created a noise cauldron in the 1991 Final when they lost to the Penguins -- was precisely the opposite.

The only reason I mention this is that Minnesota almost always precedes Winnipeg on the NHL travel tour, which makes for just a slight contrast. Faceoff will be 100-plus decibels.

And hey, maybe that'll be what finally keeps one of these back-to-backs from being something more than an unmitigated disaster. The bar is low, of course: The Penguins' first three second halves of a back-to-back set have seen them go 0-3 and get outscored, 22-6.

• Talk to you guys soon from a very good place!

WHAT'S BREWING?

• Audrey Snyder goes above and beyond, even by her standard, in blanket-covering Penn State's excruciating loss last night in Columbus. You'll also soon see her Four Downs breakdown, a video and more.

• Chris Mueller is all over Pitt's impressive victory vs. Virginia, as well.

• Our staff is split up into multiple locations, with Katie Brown and I here in St. Paul as I type this, but flying up to Winnipeg first thing Sunday morning for another game tonight. Dale Lolley, Christopher Carter and Matt Sunday are in Detroit for Steelers-Lions.

• If you missed Site Stuff, we've forged a business partnership with the Penguins.

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